Stephen Colbert talked to Barbra Streisand about her new memoir, My Name Is Barbra, on his late-night show.
Streisand’s memoir, published last week by Viking, tells the story of her life and career as one of the world’s most recognizable singers and actors. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “What a talent, what a career, what a life, and what a treat to relive it all with this most down-to-earth of demigods.”
Colbert, who appears on the 48-hour-long audiobook version of the memoir, spoke with Streisand at her home in Malibu, California. He noted that former first lady and book editor Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis asked her to write a memoir in 1984. “How long did it take you to write this book?” he asked. “Did you start in ’84 and just finish now?”
“No, I’m not that slow,” Streisand responded with a laugh. “But I did start 10 years ago.…At that time, I was trying to make Gypsy as my last film, as a bookend to Funny Girl, written by Jule Styne, worked on with Jerry Robbins, whom I loved. I understood the story from a very personal point of view, because it was about a jealous mother who is jealous of her daughter, which I talk about in my book. I understood her at the end of this book, which is 992 pages.”
“Why only 992 pages?” Colbert asked. “Did you not have more stories?”
“I ran out of them,” Streisand replied, smiling.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
